(Hint: Your Competition Already is One!)
When your customers want information, they want it now. They expect to be able type a question into a search engine and be on their way to finding a solution within moments. If your company isn’t one providing a solution during this initial search, you’ve got one strike against you – and you’re probably not even aware the game has started!
Traditional media was built on a model of scarcity. Less than 20 years ago, if you wanted local news you read the newspaper or watched the 6:00 News. For business information, you read trade magazines and attended trade shows and conferences. Radio and TV programming were our primary entertainment outlets. We faxed paperwork back and forth and mobile phones were still a luxury.
Is your marketing still tied to this old media model? Are you still renting an audience in someone else’s content? Are you buying ads and placing news releases in magazines that your customers spend a few minutes with each month? Radio spots that are over as soon as they started? Mailing brochures with no way to know how many end up in recycling without even being opened? Yikes!
Your business needs to become an information company!
Your buyers start their buying journey by educating themselves. Who better to help them learn about your industry, products, and services than you? Do you really think they’re finding specific answers to specific problems in their monthly trade magazine? You’re the expert! That’s why your customers trust you and do business with you! This is a core tenant of Inbound Marketing.
It’s time to stop hoarding your expertise! All that expertise that used to get you in the door for the initial discussion or product demo is now available on the Internet. If you’re not providing it, that means your competition is!
Remarkable content is at the core of successful marketing in today’s environment. Company blogs, white papers, case studies, training, education, webinars, testimonials, and videos are where smarter communications plans should start. Skeptical? Look up your business category or a typical solution you offer on your favorite search engine. Search again on YouTube. Now try searching LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+. If the bottom just dropped out of your stomach, you have some catching up to do!
Your goal is to become the best Internet trade publisher in your industry.
Shared knowledge and information is the door opener for today’s business. Properly optimized for search, it shows up when you want it to. Promote it on social networks where your customers are and you build audience when they share it. Do this regularly, and you become the information source that the trade magazine was back in the day. Become the known expert, and customers will track you down to help solve their problems!